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Haptic interaction in educational applications

Conference Paper · November 2015

DOI: 10.1109/IMCTL.2015.7359609

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 Haptic Interaction in Educational Applications
Yevgeniya Sulema
National Technical University of Ukraine “KPI”
Ukraine
sulema@pzks.fpm.kpi.ua

Abstract—The paper presents haptic devices, in particular TABLE I. TYPES OF HAPTIC DEVICES
data gloves, and their possible application in education. A general
technique of the development of educational applications using Haptic Devices
human-computer haptic interaction on the example of 5DT Data
Glove is presented as well. By design By touch sense involvement
Devices
Keywords—haptic device; data glove; haptic technology; Stationary Wearable Devices with feedback without
mulsemedia; immersive technology feedback

Haptic interface with vibratory

I. INTRODUCTION

Haptic interface with tactile

Haptic interface with force
On-hand device (Gloves)

feedback (Haptic display)

Ground-based device

(Exoskeletons, suits)
Haptics is a part of immersive technology that can be used

On-body device
Desktop device
for educational purposes. It opens new dimension of a learner’s

Data glove
feedback

feedback
interaction with an educational software environment by
employing one more channel of human-computer
communication. Usually only visual and audio data are used.
However, the use of one more sense of the five human senses,
which are sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch, can create
more realistic view of an object to be examined by the learner
in a virtual world.
The sense of touch has special impotence when hand Since the learner needs to have the specific haptic device to
operation skills are to be formed in the learner. The best use certain educational application, the price of this device can
example of such educational application is medical operation be an important issue. From this point of view haptic devices
skills training [1] supported by visual-haptic simulation of without feedback (data gloves) seem to be more cost-effective
different surgery operations such as eye surgery, minimally solution.
invasive surgery, dental operations, etc.
II. DATA GLOVE OVERVIEW
Haptic technology can be also useful for studying such
subjects as physics, chemistry, and other where either touch Let us examine a data glove operation principle in order to
feelings or hand operation skills are important. understand how it can be used in practice.
In general, haptic human-computer interaction can be Usually the data glove has five or more sensors (i.e. at least
useful for creation more natural communication with a learning one sensor for every finger) that register movements of fingers.
environment. For example, the choosing of some object by
touching it on the screen by a finger can be more natural for the
learner, especially for a child, than pointing it by a mouse.
The opportunities for the development of an educational
application with the use of haptic human-computer interface
depend on the type of a haptic device to be used. The
classification of haptic devices is shown in Table I.
Haptic devices with sensorial (or force) feedback enable
feeling of touch in a user while the user operates some object in
3D virtual world displayed on the screen. Examples of such
devices are PHANTOM Omni haptic device [2] and Dexmo
On-hand Exoskeleton [3].
Haptic devices without feedback enable to record the user’s
fingers movement in order to allow the manipulation of some
object on the screen. 5DT Data Glove [4, 5] and VMG Lite™ Fig. 1. 5DT Data Glove Sensors Scheme [5].
Data Glove [6] are examples of such devices.

Fig. 2. VMG Lite™ Data Glove [6].
While the user is operating some object (either virtual or
real one), he or she is moving the fingers. The data glove’s
sensors register these movements and transmit the recorded
data into the computer connected with it. Captured data
sequence represents fingers movements in time and can be
used for controlling objects in a 3D scene. Thus, the software
that uses the data glove as an interface can transform this data
into commands to be applied to certain object on the screen.
The 5DT Data Glove has the scheme of sensors location
shown at Fig. 1. Other example of data glove is VMG Data
Glove [6]. It is a wireless device (Fig. 2) that also has at least
one sensor per finger. The VMG Data Glove is equipped with
WiFi module, USB connector, 9-DOF orientation sensors (roll,
pitch and yaw) for hand orientation and wrist orientation; the
sensors mount a 3 axis gyroscope, a 3 axis accelerometer and a
3 axis magnetometer [6].
The lack of the 5DT Data Glove is that it does not allow
capturing of the hand position in 3D space. The position of
such data glove can be obtained through 6DOF tracking
system. However, a number of educational applications do not
demand involvement of the depth of the scene. For example, in
the application for teaching children of counting the gesture
can be used for certain digit representation (Fig. 3).
Gestures can be used as a natural way of communication
with objects in many educational applications. For example, in
[7] the following operations are proposed to be fulfilled by a
corresponding gesture: clicking, rotating, dragging, pointing,
and air-writing.
Fig. 3. The gesture [5] for digit “3” represetation.
III. BASIC TECHNIQUE OF HAPLIC INTERFACE BASED
APPICATION DEVELOPMENT
Let us consider the general technique of the development of
an educational application with haptic interface on the example
of 5DT Data Gove.
A. Models and 3D Scene
Any 3D virtual world application usually uses some
number of models like balls, tables, hands, humanlike
characters, etc. Such models can be created by using 3D
computer graphics software such as Blender [8], Autodesk 3ds
Max [9] and Maya [10], NewTek LightWave 3D [11], etc.
In terms of cost effectiveness Blender can be the best
solution since it is freeware. At the same time, Blender gives
wide range of tools for creation highly realistic models.
B. 5DT Data Glove Sofware
5DT Data Glove software development is supported by
SDK (Software Development Kit) available from the supplier’s
web-site [5] that enables the development of new applications.
A fragment of typical 5DT Data Glove software code [4] is
shown at Fig. 4. The main operations with the data glove are
opening of the glove, obtaining data sequence from the data
glove, obtaining the current gesture being performed, closing
of the glove, etc. To integrate the data glove and the virtual
scene a graphics engine like Ogre3D [12] should be used.
C. Ogre3D Engine
Ogre (Object-oriented Graphics Rendering Engine) is an
open-source graphics rendering engine. The core of Ogre
includes Scene Manager, Resource Manager, and Render
System that enable creation of virtual world environment with
special effects like fog, particle systems, transparent objects,
etc. Ogre applications development is supported by SDK that
can be downloaded at the Ogre’s official web-site [12].
Ogre can be used for the creation of an interactive 3D
environment (e.g. game or learning environment) where the
data glove is used for controlling of virtual objects in the scene
(Fig. 5). A fragment of typical Ogre application code [12] is
shown at Fig. 6. Since Ogre is an open-source product, it can
be considered as a cost-effective solution for educational
applications development.
using FDTGlove;
namespace WindowsFormsApplication1
{ public partial class frmMain : Form
{ CfdGlove fdGlove;
public frmMain()
{ InitializeComponent();
fdGlove = new CfdGlove();
}
...
}
}
Fig. 4. A typical fragment of the 5DT Data Glove application code [4].
 V. CONCLUSSION
Haptic technology can be used for enriching educational
applications by one more sensorial dimension. It can enable
better learning due to both rising interest of learners (especially
children) and involving additional informational channel to
human-computer interaction. Both 5DT Data Glove and VMG
Data Glove can be considered as a cost-effective solution. Free
software tools for applications development are available and
they can be used for the creation of new educational
applications with haptic human-computer interaction.
REFERENCES
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IV. DISCUSSION [9] Autodesk 3ds Max. Overview. Available at
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